Exhibition – 19th Dec – Victoria Memorial Hall

Open now from the 19th to 31st December, all 20 of the Silk River scrolls will be on display in the spectacular Central Hall at the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.

Here you will be able to see the intricate designs made by artists from the Thames and Hooghly locations, which have been painted on the finest hand woven silk made in West Bengal especially for the project.

Each of the scrolls is 6m x 1.2m and they have all been carried on foot, or on different kinds of river and road transport, from Kew Gardens to Southend in the UK (138 miles) and from Azimganj to Victoria Memorial in India.

Photos of Exhibition

Further Information about the Scrolls

The Making of Murshidabad Silk

The Silk River scrolls are made from 100% hand-woven Murshidabad silk.

Various accounts of the history of silk in India claim that silk weaving in Bengal existed from ancient times.

Records show that the Silk Weavers of Murshidabad were operating in 18th century when Nawab Murshid Quli Khan shifted the capital of the Dewanee of Bengal from Dhaka, now in Bangladesh, to a new capital he built on the east bank of the River Bhagirathi and named Murshidabad.

Murshidabad is famous for its cowdial saris made of fine mulberry silk with flat, deep- red or maroon borders made with three shuttles.